Saturday, December 10, 2016

Herman Hoeh Accused Homer of Being Demon Posessed

Back in the 1960s Herman Hoeh wrote a two volume narrative named Compendium of World History. It was similar to the 1952 book Ages in Chaos by Immanuel Velikovsky. Hoeh made many claims and assertions in that two volume work. Among other things he claimed that there were three Trojan Wars ending in 1181 BC, 1149 BC and 677 BC. But, he complains, Homer contradicted this claim so Hoeh responded to Homer's contradiction with the following accusation:

Homer was possessed by Satan's demons and, under demonic influence, wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey in such a way that events of the three Trojan Wars were combined together to confuse people and contradict Hoeh's pseudo-history.

This bizarre, ignorant and superstitious accusation may be seen in Chapter 17 of Volume 1.
How Greek History Was Corrupted 
It is not generally admitted. But Homer, the famous epic poet of Greece, was mad. His "Iliad" and "Odyssey" -- recording the events surrounding the Greek struggles with Troy -- were written while Homer was demented
Homer was not merely an insane poet. He was also a mad historian. Through Homer Greek history was altered, with diabolical cleverness. Homer telescoped three Greek wars with Troy into one. Men and events five centuries apart are artificially joined together as if contemporary. Recent archaeological investigation at Troy reveals Homer's lie. There are three wars layers -- the first and last separated by about five centuries' (See C. W. Blegen's "Troy," in the revised edition of the "Cambridge Ancient History".) 
Little wonder Paul the apostle wrote of Homer -- and of Hesiod and the other demented poets: "Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying ..." (I Timothy 1:4). 
Greeks Admit Homer Was Demented 
No poet in ancient Greece was ever considered worthy of special honor unless he was demented. Democritus "denies that any one can be a great poet, unless he is mad," wrote Cicero (Cicero, "Divin"., i, 80). Homer was therefore mad. 
Plato described the unusual kind of insanity that clutched the minds of Greece's great poet-historians and philosophers. In the "Phaedrus" Plato characterizes "poetic inspiration" as the "state of being possessed by the Muses" -- a kind of "madness, which, on entering a delicate and virgin soul, arouses and excites it to frenzy in odes and other kinds of poetry .... But he that is without the Muses' madness when he knocks at the doors of Poesy, fancying that art alone will make him a competent poet, -- he and his poetry, the poetry of sober sense, will never attain perfection, but will be eclipsed by the poetry of inspired madmen" (245 A). Again, in the "Laws" Plato wrote that "whenever a poet is enthroned on the tripod of the Muse, he is not in his right mind" (719 C). In "Ion" the Greek theory of "inspiration" is most thoroughly expressed: "It is not by art, but by being inspired and possessed, that all good epic poets produce their beautiful poems they are dancing, even so the melic poets are not in their right mind when they are composing their beautiful strains. On the contrary, when they have fallen under the spell of melody and metre, they are like inspired revellers, and on becoming possessed, -- even as the Maenads are possessed and not in their right senses ... the soul of the melic poets acts in like manner, as they themselves admit .... And what they say is true; for the poet ... cannot compose until he becomes inspired and out of his senses, with his mind no longer in him; but, so long as he is in possession of his senses, not one of them is capable of composing, or of uttering his oracular sayings" (533 E-534 D). 
In Biblical terms, Homer and all the famous Greek poet-historians were possessed of demons. It was not really the poets or philosophers who uttered the sayings, but the demon, masquerading as God, "who is the speaker, and it is THROUGH them that he is speaking to us," concluded the author of "Ion". 
The conclusion is absolutely clear. History has purposely been perverted by the diabolical influence of fallen spirits who seized the minds of poet-historians, such as Homer and Hesiod, and through them twisted the events of antiquity. Jesus Himself declared that Satan, the prince of demons, "deceiveth the whole world" (Revelation 12:9). One of Satan's clever artifices is manifest in the form of corrupted history! This diabolical plot to make God and His Word appear untrue has deceived the whole world.
And it was not just Greek history that got corrupted by demonic influence according to Hoeh. Egyptian and Mesopotanian history was altered due to demonic influence as well in such a way that they agreed with each other he confidently insists to the reader.
The same diabolical conspiracy that worked through Homer in Greece also worked through the priesthood of Egypt. Its dynasties were deliberately placed successively so that sections of Egyptian history appeared five centuries earlier. Similar diabolic manipulations occurred in Mesopotamia. When later Greek, Roman, and now modern critics and historians found Homer in apparent agreement with the altered Egyptian and Mesopotamian data, they never thought to question Homer or the Egyptian records. The conspiracy -- the deception -- was so thorough, so far superior to human ingenuity that the whole world has been deceived by it.
What garbage. How terrible it is to fill up peoples' minds with this bizarre, superstition fear concerning such ancient and profoundly important works such as the Iliad and the Odyssey. It is just disgusting.

If archaeology concluded that Troy was burnt to the ground three times that does not mean that Homer combined the three wars into one war.

Poetic language describing the joy of the creative process while making a work of art, such as writing poetry, is crudely twisted to insist that they were describing demonic possession.

Hoeh cites Democritus to insist that poets were mad and ludicrously uses that one sentence of his to claim Homer was demented and demon possessed.

Hoeh clearly wanted to believe his conclusions but he crudely dismisses any contrary information as part of some demonic conspiracy. How convenient for him. What a way to deal with contrary information. Just say the devil did it so listen to me.

When one reads filthy junk like this it is far easier to see how he could have decided in 1953 that Christ would return in 1975.

Hoeh later moved away from Armstrongism but so many people still refuse to move on and continue to revere Hoeh's writings from the time he wrote nonsense like that.

13 comments:

  1. This is the first time I’ve seen demon possession used to dismiss an opposing point of view in a PhD thesis. And imagine someone condensing several disparate events with a common thread into a single storyline.

    In an ICG sermon, GTA also blamed HLH for referring to HWA as an Apostle – a functional title that HWA had held as one of “the 70” in CG7 (Salem).

    It appears Dr Hoeh’s remaining with WCG after “the Apostasy” doesn’t discredit his early work, even though he himself dismissed it. On numerous occasions Bob Thiel has used selected articles to support his own doctrinal positions. So much the easier for rebuttal; finding faults in Dr Hoeh’s work isn’t difficult, and when foundational arguments fail, everything built on them topple.

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  2. This is also the first time I've seen this material. It is just further evidence of the quality of the research which was used to support Armstrongism. One can imagine in the minds of church members a thought as to how "God's ministers" always seem to get to the bottom of things, accompanied by a smile and a nodding of the head as they drink from this intoxicating swill.

    This is not unlike the ridiculous theories that young earth creationists use, theories regarding Adam and Eve having pet dinosaurs, or the atmosphere and space distorting light from stars to make them appear more than 6,000 light years away.

    We can know for a fact that there are ACOG members who would compartmentalize, attempting to isolate this travesty from the body of alleged support for Armstrongism. However, this goes to trust. You can't just throw this out as some sort of anomaly. It is the tip of the iceberg so to speak. It indicates that you can't rely upon ANY of their research, whether it relates to history or the basic theology. Their methodology is totally corrupt. This places all "information"
    provided by Armstrongism into National Enquirer territory.

    Unfortunately, many "thinking" Armstrongites will conclude that HWA and his staff were right, but just for the wrong reasons. The rest will take Hoeh's assertions as God's truth, secretly revealed to His ministers.

    BB

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  3. Well BB. We have established common ground on the fact that 1950-1960-1970-1980 members would all differ on what constitutes armstrongism.

    Most of the blog visitors are still arguing my central thesis that armstrongism was in continual development (on a solid basis of a few unchangeable tennets like BI). 1930's hwa was very close to the broader fundamentalist reaction to societal developments. Only after the establisment of AC and the introduction of Freemasonry by the first AC students "new revelations" starting creeping in like the "apostleship", general freemasonry through the compendium and of course the demands of a growing organisation for which hwa was unqualified to manage. So new "managers" made major imprint on the development of wcg like Stanley Rader or especially the dictator Roderick Meredith.

    But all in all from ALL that I hear in the early years hwa was quite an American democrat, approachable, extremely kind to the students, taking his time and of course the universal mind that world leaders later on liked to discuss their challenges with as an elder.

    As the lebanese prime minister said. hwa you are the bright spot we politicians need to navigate.

    nck

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  4. And I mean American democrat in the sense of "upward social mobility that was unheard of in "common european society" at the time.

    I mean ministers lording over huge churches without a university degree from Oxford. Unheard of in the British class system.

    With the advent of bricket wood british class system creeped into the wcg pasadena campus aswell. But in the early stages there was no such thing as ministers lording over churches. As a matter of fact the RADIO church of god didnt even have churches to visit. The radio audience was the constituency according to hwa himself.

    nck

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  5. As usual, nck is here to cheerleader on hwa. Just because he came off kind doesn't mean that he was always a good guy. When he put his penis into his adolescent daughter was that being kind?

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  6. Opinionated.

    I am cheerleading ideas not a person.
    Books have been written on the terrible persons in the bible and our leaders throughout history who are really terrible people like John F Kennedy but are judged favorably for all kinds of reasons.

    On the matter of "penisses" unfortunately I have never seen or heard conclusive evidence and be assured that I have seen, read, and heard all claims regarding that matter. Unfortunately all inconclusive for my legal mind.

    nck

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  7. And yes all that Hoehian and Dr Rea ian Freemasonry was stupidity of course. Although it is interesting to see that Washington DC is an entirely Masonic monument. Therefore I draw many comparisons between Hwa's mission and US Foreign Policy since 1945.

    It is all from the same source.

    nck

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  8. Nck, what does any of that have to do with the non-integrity of the organization's "research"? Are you saying that Doc Hoeh's Masonry background (of which I'd never heard) caused him to conclude that Homer was demon possessed? Are you blaming masonry for bogus research? Bad research is bad research, and invalidates its proponents. They're done. They've screwed themselves, just as badly as Milli Vanilli when it became known that they sang none of "their" hit songs. We don't even need to mess with them any further. It is inconsequential what influences they may or may not have been mirroring.

    BB

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  9. BB,

    I've been silence for weeks after Greg D. accomplished the magnificent task of understanding what I said. But I was reignited after your blatant attack on the innocents at Banned, where even Dennis felt compelled to intervene on their behalf.

    To be honest I expected a stupid response today in that same spirit. But I must admit you respond very intelligently.

    I ask you why you would spend so much time and effort if it is inconsequential in your opinion? I'm sure you are seeking the truth through that effort.

    And the truth is inconsequential since as of the 20th of january a president will be sworn in who stated non truth after non truth.

    So it is my opinion that the truth and good research seem to be inconsequential in matters of the heart.

    I am handing you the truth on a plate. Dr Rea's version on the Vikings bringing the Indians to Mexico and "The Compendium" are pure unaldulterated Masonry with a "christian" twist and Armstrongite time frame. Hoehs addition would have been the "demon possession" the rest was not of his making. And this goes for most of the doctrines of the wcg. Now compare that with the masonic history of the united states and the british generals who negotiated the peace with their cousins and the mason washington.
    The BI identity has been there as a central paradigm throughout the history of the United States and as of the 20th of january will enter its last gasp before the times of the gentiles will finally settle in.

    hwa in his time was recognized as an agent or "mercurius" of that same principle and therefore was bestowed upon greater influence than would have been apropriate for a common sales rep.

    Am I a believer. Not at all. Just observing.

    nck

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  10. They might have been innocent when they came into Armstrongism, nck, but the old man's teachings ruined for them a lot of the innate human goodness with which we are all born. The sooner that members realize what has been done to them, the sooner they can get on to something better. What I posted was not a cruel attack of innocent souls. It was more like, "Uh, Hello!? Look what's been done to your psyches and to you souls!"

    Also, what you may or may not realize is that which ever candidate ended up winning or being inaugurated, it would have been one who had told untruth after untruth. The only thing over which any of us have even limited control is what we do and say ourselves. You may define inconsequential any way you wish, but wherever there is an environment which we are prevented from leaving, that is the environment in which we must learn to function One of the reasons I post is to assist people in realizing that there are certain environments which should be abandoned if one is to survive, maintain sanity, or realize any quality of life.

    The masons without a doubt had influence over our civilization. However, they were one of many influences, often in subtle ways, not the great looming secret predominant one. We are not only a melting pot of ethnicities, but also a philosophical melting pot. E Pluribus Unim. That's what makes America great.

    BB

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  11. Fair enough!
    I can go dormant again.

    Just one more thing about "the candidates".
    It would have been great if the great american people would just have stayed at home. And that in protest to the candidates NO person would have shown up at the voting booths.

    I observe however fanatical belief and defense of nonsense, contrary to what would have been a righteous protest as I described.

    I must therefore conclude that "we" are willing to defend any nonsense when it pertains to matters of the heart it is not a matter of education. It is in our brainfunction as James as a Bernay expert would most probably agree upon. Man is not wired to accept the truth. Man is wired to storytelling and creating a narrative that fits its environment.

    nck

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  12. For the record, nck, I did stay at home.

    BB

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  13. I usually speak about "the masses", not so much individual choices as you are aware. I find the narratives mankind created wildly interesting. Including BI and the purpose it served from the 1500's until this day. Or the founders of Rome coming from Troy for that matter.

    It's true I often don't like the opressive consequences of those narratives so much. But in general mankind has been propelled forward by them also. "What did the Romans ever do for us?" Well if you can spare a minute.......... Btw Trump's narrative so far led to a 30% increase in my portfolio. The next 4 years we'll see the action that flows from that.

    nck

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